110 Gallon South American Biotope

[PlumbersMerchant]

Sorry to hear its going from s**t to worse mate. not been able to log on in ages. Someone mentioned the silicones. Silicone can be extremely dangerous which has been mentioned. especially the epoxy. Epoxy putty is a type of silicone i sell and is used for none pottable water usage i.e. helping to plug a gap in a soil pipe (s**t stack) etc. that could be a problem. ive also re-read and noticed you dont think its the sealent due to other fish surviving in the tank before.
 
Here is one for you, play the guilt card on the fish shop who supplied your fish and get them to come down and take a look at the tank. i can see it may be a problem with it being in a school but if he/she uses their knowledge in the trade, connections to their suppliers they may be able to slve your problem ?
 
Chances are probably not but i thought id chuck it in

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Thanks for the thoughts...  A buddy of mine has a friend in the industry that I'd trust more than any LFS.  We might have him stop in and check it out.

 

[McCool]

Anything new? Just read through the whole thread, And I can't even imagine how frustrated you must be!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yeah, a little frustrated.  No new updates... still working things out (or at least trying to!).

 

[This Old Spouse]

Just checking in here and hoping things are going better for you. 

Just a thought ... I transferred some cory from one tank to another using the drop & plop method. The fish are doing great. Which prompted me to wonder if that wouldn't work for the bloodfins? You've tried the drip acclimation and that's not working for some reason. 
 
Another thought I had was to use your 20 gallon, fill it with water from the big tank and add the bloodfins there. Keep them there for a couple of days and see if they're still good. If so, add a piece of rock and wait. Add things one at a time and see what happens. 

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I think we've isolated the problem to be something in the air overnight causes the problem.  We need to keep a cover on the tank.  I tried the 20 gallon as a last ditch save the fish effort last time, but to no avail.  We've had open tanks in the past with different species, so it must be either specific to species or at least genus.  Another teacher has tetras in his classroom, but there is a cover.  We've kept local fish in this tank uncovered for several years.  We are going to give it a go with some unwanted guppies and see if they fair better.
 
 
Just dealt with an algae outbreak over Spring Break.  Opened the shades and I think the extra light was too much.  Almost all cleaned up now....
 
 
We may just need to switch the plan on which fish we keep.

 

[greenmumma141]

I know when I had my water spike problems, my rummynose dropped like flies... so Im assuming they're pretty sensitive. Maybe a cheap plexi-glass cover? Or hey, you could even coat some plywood in a good water resistant black paint if you wanted...   Just a couple suggestions. Feeder guppies are a good idea

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Rummynose are a fairly "sensitive" species, unlike bloodfins.
 
And they aren't "feeder" guppies.  A friend is changing over his tropical tank to goldfish (hard to explain, but suffice it to say he's a grandfather and that's what the grandchild wants - goldies!).  So, we are going to get a few of his old guppies (ones that he's raised).

 

[snazy]

At least there's a development on what the issue could be.It must be so frustrating.  I would have advised platies instead(I can send you tons of them for free, big chunky ones too, but can't post to the US.
Are the corys still ok?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Yup.  Looking great on the new black substrate and black background.  I can't believe how dark their color has become.  On the light colored sand they were whitish with dark stripes, now they look almost black with some light spots.  I'll see if I can get some pics of them soon.
 
 
The tank is looking a bit sparse still as we pulled nearly all of the decor out of the tank - all of the rock work is out and I lost a few of the plants.  The vallis just never did make it. Some was doing well, but when we switched substrate it just disturbed them too much and they melted back to nothing.  I think there is one more crown that is holding on.  The cabomba was covered in algae after spring break, and I'm hoping it rebounds.  So, I'm going to be looking for more plants and to get a new lid on the one side.  The java fern (not South American) still looks great - once I wiped the algae off.
 
 
The really frustrating thing to me about all this is that we originally had glass covering both sides, but we have to completely remove it to do anything in the tank.  I removed it during a water change, and when I picked it up to replace it when I was done, it must have had a serious weakness somewhere - it cracked and separated in my hands - took two chunks out of my left thumb and broke (not in the tank fortunately).  We never replaced that piece of glass, as the only reason we got the glass in the first place was to reduce the evaporation. 

 

[snazy]

Oh, gosh. That's dangerous. I hate lifting covers and the only tank that I have that needs complete removal to do anything is just 14G and I really hate doing it.
Why do you think it's something in the air?

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Because its the only variable we haven't eliminated.

 

[snazy]

It's really odd.
At least with the guppies you would be exactly sure where you are coming from. Hopefully by this time whatever got into the tank is already out. Maybe it was just a coincidence and a one off.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Not a one off - the bloodfins were tried 3 times. 

 

[snazy]

Sorry eagles. I didn't realize that.
That's bad